After the death of two year old Ainlee Walker, whose parents were convicted earlier this month of her manslaughter, everyone who read her story was filled with repulsion for her torturers and pity and sorrow for her.
But what about those children who survive terrible abuse. Many, like Ainlee's mother, herself abused as a child go on to damage their own children.
At the weekend a conference organised by the Centre for Child Mental Health argued that we should have the same sympathy for them.
Psychotherapist Margot Sunderland from the Centre for Child Mental Health and Valerie Sinason, Director of the Clinic for Dissociative Studies and join Jenni to discuss. Tell us your thoughts
